Cruising: Day 1 - Embarkation
Hiii everyone! This past Sunday I returned from a 7 day Western Caribbean cruise with Royal Caribbean. It was absolutely incredible. I took notes every day so that I could come home & blog about each of my days in hopes I would be able to remember forever! Also, I thought it would be a fun way to share my pictures with you =) So here's day 1!
On Saturday March 31st, I flew to Tampa in preparation to leave the next day for the cruise. My brother lives in Tampa so I just stayed with him for the evening & we got up on Sunday to meet my mom & my Aunt Nona.
Sunday around 11:30AM we boarded the ship. Our ship was called the Rhapsody of the Seas. Below is our ship at our 2nd port: Cozumel. It's a smaller ship than the one we sailed on 3 years ago, but I found that I loved the smaller ship much better. I'll explain why during another post.
Boarding the ship was so much easier than the last time because of the size. Our bags wouldn't be delivered to our rooms for another couple of hours so we found a bar on the ship (the "Schooner Bar") & had some drinks.
Around 1pm we headed up to check out our staterooms. My brother & I shared a room & my mom & Aunt Nona shared a room - we were on the back of the ship & the balcony was HUGE!
I was so grateful to have a big enough balcony to lay out on whenever I wanted some privacy. To the left of those 2 lounge chairs is a table with 2 chairs to eat on. HUGE.
After checking out our rooms, we head up to the top deck to watch us embark around 4pm. It was a beautiful, warm day in Tampa. We got ourselves a beer, danced to some music, & waved goodbye to all of the boats near us. It felt all "Titanic-like".
We had dinner at 5:30 that evening. We met our amazing wait staff who we ended up loving. The meals are complimentary in the dining room - I guess I should say "included" instead of complimentary. You can order as much food as you want off the menu, but you do get to choose all 3 courses. Here's the menu from the first night: I ordered shrimp cocktail, New York strip, & cheesecake. Delicious!
After dinner, we ended up in the "Centrum" which was the main hub of the ship. Sean (my brother) & I played a game called "Finish that Lyric" with one of the Activities Directors, Eric. A song would play & we'd have to finish the lyrics. We both lost in the first round - they gave me a song by Billy Joel that I didn't recognize! Bummer we lost, but it was so fun watching the rest of the contestants.
Once that game finished, we headed to "Songs with Color" trivia in the Schooner Bar. A song with a color in the title would play & we would have to recognize it. We did alright! I discovered I enjoy John Collins this night - like a Tom Collins but with vodka!
Shortly after, I called it a night around 9:30PM. I wanted to get up early to work out!
So - that's day one everyone! I'm so excited to recap this trip for you & I hope you're excited to read & see all the great moments I captured!
<3 C